Aftermath
by TheWhittiePhantom
Summary: Three missing scenes revolving around unseen emotional fallouts from before and after the Flash finale.


_A/N: The Flash Finale, as satisfying as it was, didn't have time for some character moments that just weren't necessary to the plot. I just needed to get these small tidbits off my chest. Diggle is the only Arrow character I'm using, so I'll keep it as a Flash story, and not put it into the Flarrow crossover section. if you don't watch Arrow, ignore it. You won't get it._

 **Diggle-Team Building (Directly after the Arrow Finale, Before Flash Finale)**

No matter where he was, Starling City or Nanda Parbat, Diggle always felt a little more secure after his gun was loaded. As the cartridge clicked into place, he let out an involuntary sigh of relief before concentrating on the moment at hand. Laurel, Felicity, Ray, Malcolm and himself were in the middle of a mountain in the Himalayas and a plane carrying a deadly virus was flying toward Starling City. Good times.

Before Barry decided to run back to his home in Central, Diggle caught his eye and made a quick gesture to follow him into the adjoining alcove. The kid nodded, placed a comforting gesture on Felicity's arm, then followed him away from the group to see what Diggle wanted. Laurel, sensing that this needed to be a private conversation, stopped Felicity from following the two of them while simultaneously shooting Merlyn a poisonous glare.

"What's up?" asked Barry, his eyes filled with concern. He liked the kid, he really did, even if his, ah, _abilities_ put Diggle on edge. He had an innate trustworthiness to him, which made Diggle confident that whatever Barry told him might be biased, but would also be the truth.

"When was the last time you spoke to Oliver? " Diggle probed, trying to make it sound less like the interrogation that it was.

Barry scrunched up his nose a little at the question. "Ah, a few hours ago, actually. He was in Central, helping me out with the Reverse Flash. Asked me to come get you guys."

Well, that cleared up how Barry had known they were there. "What do you know about the situation?"

Looking a little more defensive, Barry answered in a measured tone. "Most of what I know, Oliver just told me. He gave me the run-down on the Lance family drama, and the abridged version of the whole Heir to the Demon bit. Nice group, the League of Assassins."

Diggle nodded. It made sense. Oliver didn't pass on information lightly, even when it was necessary, but had probably inferred that Barry did things faster when he wasn't asking questions. Better to just give him a quick summary to appease him in the beginning than than have him asking inconvenient questions during vital times of the mission. The inquisitive qualities that made Barry a natural fit for the investigative and scientific communities did not work as well in the business of assassins and espionage. "He tell you what he did?"

Barry nodded. "Yep. I told him what I thought of that idea. I also told him several things that he didn't want to hear, but sort of needed to."

Diggle raised an eyebrow, silently prompting Barry to tell what he told Oliver.

Barry sighed, and his shoulder drooped a little. "It's not exactly complementary to everyone here, so I'd rather not."

"I'm a big boy Barry. Just tell me."

"Promise you won't tell the others?"

Internally, Diggle wondered if the kid would be pacified if he pinky-swore. He put his "I don't have time for this" look on his face and waited in silence.

With an uncomfortable little squirm, Barry began repeating what he had told Oliver. "I basically told him to start taking responsibility for his massive screw-ups and stop trying to fix the things that weren't his fault to begin with. Like the Lance family issue. He didn't kill Sara. Sara continued to work with the League of her own choosing. Then, when she died, he was told to keep out of it. Then, when he comes back from an almost death and finds the other sister getting the crap kicked out of her and tells her in probably a really rude way to stop trying to get herself killed, he gets yelled at by-" Barry made a little round gesture with his finger, "-all of you for trying to stop Detective Lance from losing two daughters. Then, when the poo hits the fan, Oliver, not Laurel, gets the blame for Sara's death, the secret keeping, and encouraging Laurel. Tell me again where this is Oliver's fault."

Diggle shifted a little bit. Unlike Barry, who had only gotten Oliver's side of things, he had seen Laurel's side of the argument. "She did get a trainer. And she proved herself when he was gone recovering from a stab wound."

This statement did nothing to appease Barry. If anything, he started to get more and more agitated. "She wanted to be a vigilante? Fine. Then let her see the upsides and the downsides. She needs to take responsibility for what she did. Her and Felicity. Oliver was telling me about some of the stuff that Felicity said to him. Some of it was probably well deserved, but I'm sure that he never helped someone computer generate their voice to sound like their dead sister. That's a whole new level of wrong. She wants to lecture Oliver about morality? Honestly? That...doing that...that was sick."

During Barry's entire little monologue, Diggle's face hadn't changed. He _had_ asked what Barry had told Oliver. There was no point in getting mad at Barryafter having gone through the trouble of getting the speedster to talk in the first place."

But Barry wasn't finished. He raised one red-gloved finger, and pointed it ever so slightly toward Diggle, and dropped his voice a few good octaves from the higher, slightly hysterical pitch it had begun to reach. "Look. The only other thing I have to say on the subject is that it is truly _sad_ when my team is headed up by a psychotic, time traveling, no-good, low-down, lying _murderer_ and we still act more cohesively as a group."

This threw Diggle for a loop. "What?!"

Barry waved a tired hand. "Long story. I've been busy trying to keep that situation under control. Not too successfully either."

The tension that had been building between the two evaporated and the exhausted sounding admission. To Diggle, it sounded like the normally polite Barry Allen probably needed to get some frustration off his chest. "You okay man?"

Barry nodded. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. That was super rude. It's none of my business."

Diggle shrugged, and for the first time for a while, he let a small smile cross his face. "It's not, but it probably needed to be said. Sometimes it's better to hear something from an outside source. In fact, you probably saved Oliver from two black eyes."

Barry cocked his head curiously. "Two black eyes?"

"I'll only give him one," Diggle generously allowed.

The young metahuman chuckled. "Good to know I'm useful. Hey, sign me up for babysitting duty sometime, okay? I can be there real fast."

"You haven't told me about you being fast at all."

Barry gave Diggle a miniature salute. "See you around. Good luck!"

 **Cisco-Like a Dad (Right before the season finale)**

Cisco, Ronnie, and Caitlyn were spread out miserably across Joe's couch. All three had cups of hot chocolate cradled in their hands, although the contents had long gone cold and untouched.

Joe had decreed after dragging the unconscious body of Eobard Thawne into the metahuman cell that nobody was sleeping alone that night, if they got any sleep at all. His gut had told him that Thawne had wanted to be captured, and that if that were true, it would just be better to stay together.

Iris and Eddie, however, had wanted to go someplace private, and ended up back at Eddie's apartment. Nobody had stopped them. After seeing the look on his daughter's face, Joe had widely backed down and shuffled out of the room. Dr. Stein had also declined the invitation to stay at Joe and Barry's house after muttering something about wanting to be with his wife. Again, nobody objected, reasoning that Ronnie could alert them all if Dr. Stein was in trouble.

For a long time, no one had said anything. Barry had elected to lay face-down on the floor and count carpet fibers like he had when he was little. Luckily, mashing his face into the floor had masked the rough tears that were silently coursing down his face. His little impromptu trip to Nanda Parbat had kept his mind temporarily occupied, but now that he was back, it just felt inappropriate to do anything except lay on the floor and do nothing.

Caitlyn and Ronnie were cuddled in a way that didn't scream couple, but looked intimate nonetheless. Ronnie rubbed little circles into Caitlyn's arm in calming motion, although it wasn't exactly clear which of them was being more calmed by the gesture.

Cisco looked the worst out of all of them. Despite the fact that he had been one of the first to hop aboard the "Harrison Wells is the Reverse Flash" train, it clearly hit him harder than anyone else in the room. For once, he wasn't cracking jokes. He wasn't crying like Caitlyn and Barry, or merely saddened like Ronnie and Joe. His features, which normally acted as an guide for how he was feeling, were emotionless.

Finally, after an hour of no talking and sniffling, he spoke.

"You know what's pathetic? Even now, I can't view him as a totally bad person. Even knowing what he has done."

Joe looked like he was going to respond to that, but to the surprise of everyone, Barry chimed in an agreement. "I know what you mean."

Everyone in the room turned to look in his general direction.

"Even after seeing him in the Reverse Flash suit, it's really hard to reconcile the Reverse Flash and Dr. Wells. The man who murdered my mother and the man who supported me in every science related fantasy I could could dream up. The man who didn't hesitate to help any of us and the man who would have killed us all without a second thought." Barry picked at a section of the carpet thoughtfully. "I feel so stupid for not seeing it..."

Cisco nodded, buoyed a little by Barry's agreement with his stance on the issue. "When I was presenting my portfolio to a committee for review, and Dr. Wells stayed up with me until four in the morning to help me get it ready. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times I went to awards ceremonies or something and he came without being even asked when my own parents didn't even come."

Caitlyn didn't say much. "He was my mentor. When I was working at STAR Labs as an intern and it looked like I wasn't going to finish grad school because of financial issues, Dr. Wells stepped in and paid for the rest of it. Books, classes, boarding, everything." She looked like she was going to say more, but ended up just moving closer to Ronnie, if that were at all possible.

Joe decided against saying anything. Dr. Wells and him and never seen eye to eye on anything, but Joe had respected Dr. Wells for the clear concern he felt for all of Team Flash. This was personal, and he had no business intruding on a conversation that was really only meant for the people who had been the closest to the scientist.

Another heavy silence reigned for an inestimable amount of time.

"He was more of a father to me than my own," Cisco finally said. With that last admission, he finally broke down, salty tears watering down his hot chocolate as he let out what he had been bottling up for nearly three weeks.

 **Captain Singh-Need a Number (After the Flash Finale, After the Wormhole is *probably* closed)**

"This feels like a great day to quit. It really does," murmured the DA. She looked across to Captain Singh who had his head buried in his hands on his desk. No one should look so uncomfortable in their own office, she thought. "We can't ignore this anymore."

A murmur of agreement came from the desk. "Ignoring someone running around in a red onesie is one thing. Ignoring a massive black hole that nearly ate the city is a little different."

Both of their heads shot up as the door opened. Detective Joe Wet entered, his eyes red with tears. Singh hadn't seen West this bad for a while. The detective gave a nod of respect to the DA then turned his gaze to the Captain. "Eddie."

It was all that had to be said.

Captain Singh sank even lower into his chair. Clearly his day could get worse. "How?"

"The wormhole. He died getting Barry, Iris, a few scientists, and myself from getting killed." He stumbled a bit. "From the wormhole."

A wave of loud pressure started building up in Singh's ears. Not another one. "Anyone else?"

Joe shook his head, and a small gasp of relief came from the DA. "No. Just Eddie. The-The Flash closed it before anyone else could die."

Singh nodded. One of his strengths was to focus on what needed to be done. "I want you and Allen to take a few days off. I'll have Spivot deliver the news to the Thawnes. Just rest and get you head in order. I'll have all available units on the streets making sure that no looters are taking advantage of the situation." At this point, the DA began taking notes for the announcement she was going to make. "Thirdly, I need someone to find a surefire way to get ahold of The Flash."

Joe froze, and Singh pretended not to notice. "Blog postings don't count. We need something private between The Flash and the police. I have a feeling that right now, the Flash knows more than anyone in his room.

"What does Captain Lance from Starling do?" asked the DA. "Last I checked, he is able to contact the Arrow whenever he likes."

Joe ground his teeth a little. "I'm not sure Starling City is a role model for how to have a good relationship with vigilantes."

Singh ignored him, but refrained from telling him to leave in an attempt to spare Joe's feelings. "He uses a military grade cell phone. Untraceable."

To be honest, that didn't sound like a bad idea to Joe. "I can get one. STAR Labs has military contracts that allow them to develop those kinds of things. I'm sure if we offered The Flash one through Iris's blog, he would take it."

The DA nodded, glad to have a plan of action. "You do that. We need to tell the city that we have a plan of action, and with public opinion leaning the way it is, it's a good idea to tell the public that we are trying to contact The Flash."

"But go home first, Joe," Singh butted in. "Seriously. You need it."

Joe nodded and left the room, muttering, "Here's to Barry getting on Singh' good side."

* * *

 **A/N: Confession time, I am so happy you wrote that bit with Diggle and Barry especially 'cause I've had a scene in my head for months in which Barry just tells Oliver the heck _off_ for all that business in the Arrow finale. xD And you really did just make me cry with Cisco, I'm not even exaggerating there... YOU MONSTER I LOVE YOU. P.S. I've read some spoilers for the Flash premiere, and HNNNNGGGHH. This is why we need school; it gives us unbridled nerd-convo time. xD**

 **-Mumble**

 _ **A/N I need to have words with the person who decided on Arrow's storyline, you know what, their everything this year. While the Flash made me super happy, Arrow got steadily worse and worse. Even the stuff I have read about the Arrow premeire makes me feel more and more like I just need to stop watching, the Flash stuff has made me super happy. I can't wait to have unbridled nerd-covo time. My family fails me. *Long distance high five**_

 _ **-2whitie**_


End file.
